Scorpion or Grasshopper?
by FanoftheMask
Summary: 6 years have passed since Erik's disappearance. Christine is unhappy with her life with Raoul, so she returns to Paris with their 6 year old son. This decision could leave her alone in the world. This is based on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Leroux.
1. The Return

A/N: This story was previously published by me under a different title. Thank you Chipmunklover for reading over this story.

Chapter 1: The Return

"_Why, you ask, was I bound and chained in this cold and dismal place. Not for any mortal sin, but the wickedness of my abhorrent face!" _Erik cried threateningly.

"_Track down this murderer. He must be found,"_ echoed the actors and police from a distance.

The Phantom dragged Christine down to the cellars of the opera house after her act in the Don Juan Triumphant opera. Erik knew that the police were following their trail as he tried to force Christine to marry him.

"_This haunted face holds no horror for me now. It's in your soul, that the true distortion lies,"_ Christine angrily assures him.

Erik, upset by Christine's last remark, suddenly notices Raoul, who has just appeared at the gate.

"_Wait, I think, my dear, we have a guest!"_ Erik dryly said.

He composes up a plan to compel Christine to marry him. He made her choose between her freedom and Raoul. If she chose to love Raoul, then Erik would kill him, but if she chose Erik then Raoul would be free and she would stay in the labyrinth.

"_Monsieur I bid you welcome. Did you think that I would harm her?" _Erik said ashe opened the gate. He picked up the Punjab lasso from the surrounding water. _"Why would I make her pay, for the sins which are yours?" _The lasso was thrown around Raoul's neck and tied to the closed gate. Christine gasped at the thought of him being the Phantom's next victim.

To Christine, he said, _"Start a new life with me. Buy his freedom with your love. Refuse me and you send your lover to his death. This is the choice; this is the point of no return!_

Angered at the request of Erik, she said, _"The tears I might have shed for your dark fate, grow cold, and turn to tears of hate!"_

"_Don't throw your life away for my sake!" Raoul urged._

"_Pitiful creature of darkness; what kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you, you are not alone." _She kissed Erik.

"Track down this murderer, he must be found! Hunt out this animal, who runs to ground!" echoed the actors and police, who were nearing the group.

"_Take him. Forget me. Forget all of this. Leave me alone. Forget all you've seen. Go now, don't let them find you Take the boat; swear to me, never to tell, the secret you know, of the angel in Hell! Go now! Go now and leave me!"_

Christine rushed to Raoul before Erik could change his mind. They embraced each other and ran out the gate. The Opera Ghost watched them leave and entered the hidden room in one of his mirrors.

Meg Giry was the first to reach the underground house and narrowly missed seeing the Phantom. She picks up the mask which was left on the organ.

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Six years later, Christine and her son Philippe, who was named after his uncle, find their way back to the opera house.

Comte de Chaney, Raoul's brother, had raised Raoul after their father died and had left them orphans. He helped Raoul through school and at the start of his sailing career. After his death, by being drowned by Erik, Raoul and Christine had wanted to honor him with naming their son after him.

Upon receiving her freedom from Erik's layer, Christine and Raoul quickly were wed. Unfortunately, the two lovers were too hasty in their love. Being childhood sweethearts does not mean that they were match made in Heaven.

Since their son's birth, Christine and Raoul had disagreements even on the slightest events. They accounted this on the encounter with the Phantom of the Opera, because too much had gone between them.

Christine has left her husband to return to Paris and to see how the opera has fared in the years of her absence.

Raoul and Christine had moved to Christine's hometown in Perros. They had moved into the house that Christine had lived in before her father died and she left to live with Madame Giry.

"Where's Père*?" asked Philippe while they were on the train.

"We're going away from him for a while," his mother replied.

"Is he going to meet us later? Where are we going?"

"We are going to Paris to meet with some old friends," she answered, intentionally ignoring his first question.

They were silent for the rest of the journey to the opera house.

She still remembered the paths around the building as if she had never been gone. Philippe was looking around with a curiosity that only young children can experience.

Passing the dressing rooms, she saw a familiar friend. "Meg!" Christine called.

"Christine?" inquired her friend.

The two had known each other since the day Meg Giry was born. They were raised as sisters when Mme. Giry, Meg's mother, adopted Christine after her father died.

"Come inside," invited Meg, gesturing toward her room. They entered the small room with Meg leading the way. "I assume you are here about the Phantom." Christine nodded. "Well then, he has not been seen or heard of for some time now."

Startled by Meg's bluntness, Christine asked, "When was the last time anyone heard of him?"

"He just vanished the night you left the Opera Populaire. No one has seen him since that night."

"Oh. How has the opera fared since then?"

"There is no more trouble with the Phantom of the Opera. Remember Carlotta?" Christine nodded again. "After the night Piangi was killed, she left. There were rumors that she was the last victim if the Phantom. But _I _know that she returned to Spain." Meg was enjoying telling Christine of this gossip.

"I think I'll go down to the Phantom's hideaway see what there still is down there. Can you watch Philippe for me?"

"Yes I'll watch him. Oh I should get the mask," Meg said. Christine watched her retrieve the mask with a perplexed expression.

To Philippe, Christine said, "Stay with Meg. I will be back in a while."

"Mère*," whined Philippe. He didn't want her to leave him with this unknown woman.

Christine walked the long trail of steps to the fifth cellar of the opera house, clutching the white mask as if it were a lifeline. In the corners of the dark corridor were several types of spider webs, a few with spiders. She remembered the way to the underground house from the few times she was dragged along this path by Erik. As she passed clumsily through the lake, she wondered, _"What has become of the Phantom? Why has no one seen him since I left?"_

After several flights of stairs and wading through an underground lake, Christine arrived at the Phantom's lair. There was music scores scattered on and around the organ. The Phantom's obsessive drawings of Christine were torn into shreds and left where they fell. Erik, himself, was nowhere to be seen.

Christine ventured further into the house and into what must have been his secret room, for she found him huddled underneath a small broken piano with hundreds of once red rose petals that were now dead piled under him. His hair was greasy from years of negligence. Christine was shocked at the site of him, although she was long used to his scars.

"Erik?" Christine asked, showing him the mask.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. Erik smiled hugely when he realized she had returned to him even if he thought he was imagining her. His eyes then fell upon the mask she still held. He stood up to retrieve it from her. Christine smiled to herself at the familiar look of Erik pulling on his mask.

*Père and Mère are French for Mother and Father.*


	2. The Note

A/N: This chapter takes place the next day. Sorry it is not very long.

Raoul exited the ship unused to the feel of solid ground under his feet. The sky above him had not a cloud to blemish it, the perfect weather for returning to France. There was an eager horde of people on looking the arrival of the sailors. He looked around the area half-expecting to see Christine and Philippe among the people. They weren't. Raoul pushed his way through the crowd to get to his home and see his family. But, the crowd was persistent about properly greeting him; every single one of them.

"_Please_, let me pass. I've a wife and son waiting on me at home," Raoul pleaded.

Everybody seemed not to hear him. In fact, in Raoul's opinion, they even seemed to push closer together. One of his friends on the ship, Thomas, saw the struggle that he had to endure to free him.

"Come along, let him through. Move along," Thomas offered, waving his arms in a "get out of the way" gesture. The townspeople finally made a path for Raoul.

He began his journey calling over his shoulder, "Thank you, Thomas. We'll have to have you over sometime!"

Thomas chuckled to himself, calling, "You best slow down. You're going to be too tired for Christine."

Raoul opened his front door. "Christine! Philippe!"

There was no reply.

"Christine! Philippe! I'm home!" When no one replied he began to get suspicious. Something was not right. On the other trips he has been on as a sailor, his son was waiting at the door for his arrival.

He entered his house. No one was there.

Suddenly as if icy water was poured on him, Raoul came to a sudden realization. "Christine!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Wandering into their bedroom, Raoul noticed the drawers in Christine's carelessly opened dresser had several articles of her favorite clothing that appeared to be missing. The suitcase that the couple had bought when they moved back to Perros was also missing. Seeing that, he scurried to his son's room.

Precariously placed was the note, near Philippe's unlit oil lamp on his bedside table. The note simply read:

_Dearest Raoul,_

_I can no longer take the unremitting bickering that consumes every spare minute of our lives. It is unhealthy for our son to have to grow in a household such as this. I have taken Philippe to Paris with me. I will always remember you._

_Sincerely,_

_Christine._

The note was written as if it were an afterthought. Christine wrote it sloppily and without much thought behind it.

Raoul sunk to his knees, crumbling the note. "Why Christine? Why?" He sobbed into his fists. Raoul felt juvenile tears flow down his cheeks. He looked up. He knew what he had to do. He had to travel to Paris to reunite with his lost love and child.


	3. The Heat of Anger

Christine awoke in the morning in a very large and soft swan shaped bed. The bed's sheets were a deep almost blood red color. At the foot was a large meticulously carved swan head. A black transparent curtain was drawn around the bed.

Still heavy with sleep, Christine opened her eyes slowly, with great effort. _"Where am I?"_ Looking around the dimly lit room she suddenly realized where she was; she was still in the lair of the Phantom.

She jumped out of the swan bed, surprised that she was still in her dress of the day before. As she walked down the steps, she remembered walking those very same steps almost seven years before. _"I remember there was mist. A swirling mist upon a vast glassy lake. There were candles all around. And on the lake there was a boat. And in the boat there was a man," _she thought as she hummed the melody.

Erik was sitting at his organ. Christine listened intently to the music the Phantom was playing, seeing if she would recognize the tune. She didn't.

"Erik," Christine whispered softly. He didn't hear her. "Erik," she repeated a little louder. The organ ceased playing. He turned to look and smiled softly. "I have to go. I shall return tonight."

He appeared upset. He fell to his knees and begged with his hands clenched together, "Please promise you will return! _Please!"_

Christine smiled at his childish request, "I promise."

Christine was on her way back down to the fifth cellar to the Phantom's lair the next morning. The walls were covered in a dark green slime. A grayish brown rat scurried across Christine, causing the poor mother to dart to one side, brushing against the slimy wall. She grimaced at the filthy patch that had appeared on her shoulder. Philippe was looking back and forth, trying to see _everything_ that they walked past. Although she felt safe enough with Erik to bring Philippe with her, she could not shake Meg's words from her mind.

"Mother always warned me against the fifth cellar," Meg had warned sharply, "I heed her warnings, and I would advise you to do the same."

When she reached the lower cellars, there was a large white shape in the distance. Christine couldn't fathom what it could be, for the fog was engulfing. A loud piercing neigh then came from the shape; Christine then realized it was nothing more than Cesar, Erik's stallion. Erik had carefully placed the horse far enough into the cellars so the opera crew wouldn't find it, and close enough so Christine wouldn't have to walk the entire way.

When the party reached the underground house's gate, the horse stopped without any guidance. Christine dismounted the white horse and aided Philippe. Inside the gate she saw Erik pacing back and forth nervously. His mask was uncomfortably crooked, and he had not eaten or drunken since Christine's departure the day before. Oblivious to Christine, Erik's temper began to rise.

As Erik turned around to pace in the opposite direction, he noticed Christine. He looked directly at her and she felt a chill of Erik's anger wash through her. Christine immediately regretted bringing her son as Erik's green eyes flashed with anger.

"Erik?" Christine asked tentatively.

"You promised you would return to Erik yesterday!" Erik yelled angrily. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He raised his arm to strike Christine. She flinched, bracing herself for the impact. "Erik does not like to be lied to!"

The anger that Erik had possessed was suddenly drained. His arm dropped at the same time he fell to his knees at Christine's feet. Beginning to sob, he hid his face in his strong hands. The soprano opened her eyes, unsure what Erik was planning. She saw his crumpled at her feet. Her fear melted away. But Philippe's didn't. He watched as Christine sat down and comforted the Phantom- the man who had terrified his mother.

Raoul finally reached the opera house after a long arduous journey. There was no doubt in his mind that this was the place Christine had returned to. As he entered the large doors of the building, he thought about Christine and young Philippe in the lair of the Phantom. He stopped short as he pondered this thought. _"How could she bring our son to this dangerous monster?"_ He became panicked and started running in the direction of the fifth cellar. Raoul soon grew exhausted; he was out of shape and had not gotten enough sleep in the past week since Christine left. He refused to stop and soon felt himself black out. Raoul fell to the ground, unconscious.


	4. Madeleine

The room that Raoul was sleeping in had pink flowered wallpaper on the walls. There was a portrait of a beautiful young woman; she had long, wavy blonde hair and deep blue eyes that were outlined in long dark lashes. The portrait was painted at a three-quarter profile, so her eyes were partially shadowed in her lashes, and was bordered with a finely decorated brass frame.

The woman in the portrait walked into the room and looked toward the bed that Raoul was in. Raoul turned over so he facing the woman. "Christine! Christine!" Raoul mumbled. There was a pause in his mumbling, enough for a reply. "Christine, Christine, it is I, Raoul." Another pause. "But answer me, Christine! In Heaven's name, if you are alone, answer me!"

The woman had tears in her eyes listening to him. He must terribly love this woman named Christine. It was all she could do not to wake him, telling herself that he needed the sleep.

Suddenly Raoul woke with a start. He jumped out of the bed. "Hours and hours? What is the time now? What is the time now, Christine?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized he was not with his wife. In fact he did not even know where he was. Only that he was in Paris to find Christine.

Oblivious that Raoul was still dreaming when he asked the time, she answered, "Past noon, Monsieur. You have been asleep for two days. I thought it unwise to wake you."

"Okay, my I ask where I am?"

"You are in my lodgings in the Opera Populaire. You fainted at on the steps of the opera. I, and a few friends, brought you in here."

"Thank you Mademoiselle—". Raoul sat down on the side of the bed.

"Madeleine Buquet."

"_Buquet. Where have I heard that name before?"_ Raoul wondered.

"What are you doing here anyway? It appears that you haven't had a decent night's sleep in weeks." Her voice was filled with concern.

"I'm searching for my wife and son. Christine and Philippe are their names. Have you heard of them?"

"No I haven't. How did you lose them?" She asked softly. She placed her hand on Raoul's shoulder gently.

Tears once again forming in his eyes he told her why Christine was gone. After he finished, he stood up to leave. "Merci Mademoiselle Madeleine." He knelt onto his knee and kissed her hand softly. "Au revoir." He then walked out the door without a second thought.

Madeleine watched him leave, wistfully, hoping he wouldn't.

* * *

Christine was sitting on a sofa in Erik's lair. She was deep in thought and didn't notice when Erik entered the room.

"Christine." He said softly as he sat down next to her. "You are not yourself tonight."

Surprised that her feelings were so legible to him, she recapped the fight she and Meg had.

"You really think it's wise to bring Philippe back there? After what happened last time? That monster could have easily killed you, right in front of your son," Meg had said.

"Erik wouldn't ever hurt me. Much less a child. He knows how it feels to grow up without a mother to love," Christine defended. Meg chuckled.

"Honestly," she said, "I don't see him feeling anything sympathetic after killing all those innocent people. If I were you, I would turn him in to the police. You know there is still an active warrant for his arrest and a most handsome reward. Obviously you haven't noticed that he never leaves that cellar. Oh, if only I remembered where that lair was. I certainly could use that money," Meg said.

"_Those who speak of what they know find too late that prudent silence is wise," _Christine retorted dryly.

She was infuriated, "Don't you dare use Mother's words!" she said.

Erik nodded awkwardly. "So you felt you had to defend me against your most trusted friend?" He didn't try to hide his amusement.

Christine smiled slightly and began to relax. "Yes I guess I did."

"Good." He leaned closer to Christine and gently kissed her lips. She relaxed completely and returned it much deeper. Erik leaned closer and groaned, his eyes closed.

Close to the point of no return, Erik's eyes became alert to what was happening. He jumped off the sofa, surprising Christine.

"How could anyone love a monster such as Erik? No one!" He said to no one. "Erik deserves nothing. He is the Devil's Child after all."

"Erik, it's okay." In spite of Christine's efforts, Erik shrugged her off and deliberately left the room. Christine watched him leave.

A/N: Merry Christmas everybody!!! Hope you read and reply!


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